Charles Mahoney:
Adam and Eve (Mahoney and Dunbar) Dancing, c.1934
Passe-partout (ref: 3164)

Ink on paper, 8 1/2 x 7 in. (21.5 x 18 cm.)

(11 5/8 x 10 1/4 in. (29.5 x 26 cm.) framed)

Tags: Charles Mahoney ink men women 1.PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST Mahoney

Provenance: The Artist's Estate; Private collection

Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.300.

Mahoney’s first depiction of Adam and Eve appears to date to the beginning of his relationship with Evelyn Dunbar in the mid 1930s; references to “Charlie and Eve” occur in their correspondence. The idea of the Garden of Eden encapsulated the feelings of both about plants and nature, a passion nourished by frequent trips to Kew Gardens. Mahoney delighted in depicting different points in the narrative (The Garden, The Temptation, The Expulsion) and the subject remained a recurrent theme right through to his last decorative panel, The Muses, in which elements of his vision of paradise gardens combine to form a remarkable panorama (see cat. no. 129).